


Nothing More Than Biology

by lizziemikaelsons (wintergalaxy)



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Guilt, Internal Monologue, Listen I love Raf and Hafael so don’t @ me, No Dialogue, Present Tense, Unrequited Love, shrug emoji
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-11-26 11:35:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18180071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintergalaxy/pseuds/lizziemikaelsons
Summary: Despite not knowing much at all about the minutiae of being a werewolf, Rafael eventually decides, early one morning while lying awake in bed before school, that what he’s been feeling for Hope Mikaelson ever since he met her is werewolf-based. Purely supernatural, and nothing else. Maybe it’s a coping mechanism; maybe he truly believes it - he’s not entirely sure, but he doesn’t really care.





	Nothing More Than Biology

**Author's Note:**

> Written because I actually highkey love Hafael, and unrequited love is one of the angstiest yet most relatable things to exist on earth. Also, there’s not enough Raf appreciation out there, so I’m making it!

Despite not knowing much at all about the minutiae of being a werewolf, Rafael eventually decides, early one morning while lying awake in bed before school, that what he’s been feeling for Hope Mikaelson ever since he met her is werewolf-based. Purely supernatural, and nothing else. Maybe it’s a coping mechanism; maybe he truly believes it—he’s not entirely sure, but he doesn’t really care.

There is no attraction there but pheromones, Rafael tells himself, every moment in the following days that he finds his mind wandering to her. Pheromones that detect other wolves, for survival reasons. A dormant prehistoric animal instinct that was once necessary to make packs, or even to snuff them out. It’s just his nature to notice her, because she’s _like him_ , and in a less organized society, they would need to bond to each other to live. That is all.

(He knows enough basic biology to know that’s not how any of this works, but he goes along pretending it does. Because it’s supernatural, right? Anything is possible. For all he knows, werewolf biology could be markedly different.)

Deep down, Rafael knows the real reason he clings to this idea is that it means he is slightly less of a horrible person for being head over heels for his brother’s girl. Somewhere inside him that he refuses to see, Rafael knows and accepts this. 

Consciously, however, he still manages to convince himself this isn’t the case, that the wolf attraction is controlling him. He is an animal now, and he has to acknowledge that part of himself. But just like how he must chain himself down on the full moon, he must chain his less noticeable wolfish behaviors when in everyday life—everything from bursts of white-hot anger to the dreaded unholy reaction that goes through him whenever he sets eyes on Hope. 

As the weeks pass, and Landon and Hope settle in to a routine together, Rafael slowly starts to learn control—but mostly by avoidance, if he’s telling the truth. He quickly works out when he shouldn’t be around, where not to go because he doesn’t want to walk in on them making out, and what not to say. Landon already knows how he feels, and Hope at least suspects, so whenever the two of them are in the same room, Rafael makes sure not to be there, too, unless he has to be.

For a while, it works. Until it doesn’t.

Because the problem is, while he can control his actions, he hasn’t yet learned to control his mind. And it’s tearing him apart inside.

That is why lately, whenever Rafael sees her, even when she isn’t hanging out with Landon, he feels a distinct sense of danger rising in him. 

Danger to himself, that is. Because damn it, if anyone is going to make him lose control and say something stupid that he can’t take back, it’s Hope. She will be the death of him.

Still, he doesn’t avoid her when she’s by herself, not in the way he does when she and Landon are together and acting all coupley. He could never. Danger or not, he cares about her.

Rafael always senses Hope before he sees her. He can tell what she’s feeling without her ever uttering a word, or even by the subtlest of body language. He can pick up on the perfume she’s wearing, or the scent of where she’s been after a long outing with Dr. Saltzman. Often, he finds himself listening to her heartbeat, sometimes just to check on how she’s doing, since she makes herself so hard to read. Other times, in those rare moments when they’re alone and she’s looking directly at him with that small but brilliant smile, he’s listening for something—aching for some sort of arrhythmia that might give away that she feels the same way about him as he does about her. 

He never hears it, nor does he expect to.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, comments, and feedback are highly appreciated! It always makes my day.
> 
> Find me on tumblr @hopewolves.


End file.
